Wednesday, September 11, 2013

A Bible Fight Over 'Allah' Malaysia

The Semitic family of languages consists of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, Arabic (the most widely-spoken Semitic language with over 400 million speakers), Am'haric (language of Ethiopia with 20 million speakers), Tigrinya (spoked by the Tigre people of Eritrea and eastern Sudan) and Hebrew (9 million speakers). The Quran states that Israel is home of Judaism and their God is the same as Islams. The same! The Christian God is the same as Judaism and the same as that of Islam. There is no argument. This is a problem in Islam today. They have become so competitive, even against other Muslim sects. They divide people. Make claims on things that do no belong to them only. If they do believe in one God, there should be no such problems. Yet there is this constant us vs them going on. Enemies made where none exist. Fighting over pettiness. Why don't clerics clear this up instead of making it worse. Islam will never know peace. Jibral, Gabriel? Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael? Allah was used in Mecca long before Mohammed was even born and loner than before the Quran written. It means whatever we mean by God. The Supreme. Even pagans used the name Allah to mean the Supreme one which in the old days, they thought was the Moon. As we learn more about the Universe and after Mohammed, it was discovered the Moon was not the Supreme. The Universe is so much bigger than humans first thought. And its bigger than we think now today. Allah was just an Arabic word for Supreme God, who we still do not know much about. Allaht. Non-Muslims are barred from using up to 35 other Arabic terms, besides "Allah", in every state except for Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, and the Federal Territory. Malacca has reportedly banned the most number of Arabic words and phrases compared to the other states. In Selangor, the Non-Islamic Religion Enactment 1988 (Control of Propagations Among Muslims) listed 25 words that cannot be uttered by non-Muslims either orally or in writing, including "Allah", "firman Allah" (God’s decree), "solat" (daily prayers), "Rasul", "mubaligh" (missionary), "mufti" (cleric), "iman" (faith), "Kaabah", "Qiblat" (the direction in which Muslims pray), and "Haji". Non-Muslims are also banned in Selangor from using 10 other phrases such as "subhan-Allah" (Glory be to God), "insha-Allah" (God-willing), "astaghfirullah" (forgive me God), "masha-Allah" (God has willed it) and "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). This word is not something special to Muslims only. It is just a name. It isn't the thing. The supreme thing is not something to own or fight about! As human awareness expanded over time religion was invented to help orientate ourselves to a Universe 14 billion years old and truly vast in scale. Hopefully as religion evolves it will return to its most useful function, that being the promotion of love in the form of the "Golden Rule." Though Christianity has largely reached that point in the West, it looks like Islam will take a bit more time. Does the rest of the world have the time and patience to wait for them to catch up? To me Islam seem's to be stuck in a reverse gear.